Al Gore On Why America, Even GW, Is Close To Its Tipping Point On Global Warming.

Source: Newsweek

An Inconvenient Truth trailer and website here.

Al Gore steps out of the quiet life to promote his new campaign: his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to raise awareness and battle the effects of global warming.

He even uses the quote, "At some point, reality has its day!"

I guess he forgets which administration he's dealing with here.

April 28, 2006 -- Al Gore has launched his new campaign--this one to battle the effects of global warming. At its center is a new film, "An Inconvenient Truth," which stars Gore and has been winning surprisingly positive press. It opens May 24. The former vice president, who has abandoned a relatively low profile to promote the movie, spoke to Eleanor Clift about the environment, technology and politics in America. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: They say timing is everything. Has the moment arrived for this issue?

Al Gore: I hope it has. I hope that we are close to a tipping point beyond which the country will begin to face this very seriously and the majority of politicians in both parties will begin to compete by offering meaningful solutions. We're nowhere close to that yet, but a tipping point by definition is a time of very rapid change--and I think that the potential for this change has been building up, with the evangelical ministers speaking out, General Electric and Republican CEOs saying we have to address it, grass-roots organizations--all of these things are happening at the same time because through various means people are seeing a new reality.

The one that doesn't live on the same planet or breathe the same air the rest of us do.

One that also is a bitch to the oil industry, so while this will be a "eye opener" for many, it won't even nudge those who should really "wake up and smell the coffee" on this issue.

What do you say to President Bush and others who still suggest we need more study?

Well, the title "An Inconvenient Truth" is a way of highlighting the reasons why some people, including the president, don't seem to accept the truth. It's inconvenient. This administration, as has been abundantly documented, is quite responsive to the oil and coal industry and, by the way, to the least responsible companies within those industries. And they do not want anything done on global warming.

The resistance to this "real threat" confronting the world was best put in this quote:

Secondly, though, I think that it's an example of the Upton Sinclair quote that "It's hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding."

Gore even highlights 3 reasons why the energy industry hasn't done anything about the issue of global warming.

I think there are three reasons.

One is they genuinely believed that in the past there has been hyperbole used to stampede the Congress or the people to adopt some measure that later turned out to be excessive--they fear that might be happening again--so there's a reflexive us and them.

Secondly, The behavior of ExxonMobil is disgraceful. They finance in whole or in part 40 organizations that put out disinformation on global warming designed to confuse the American people. There has emerged in the last couple of decades a lobbying strategy that is based on trying to control perceptions.

The third reason is that some of the ideological conservatives believe that if global warming is a) real and b) as bad as the scientists are telling us--and we're responsible for it and we have to fix it--they worry that will mean government has to play a larger role in some way shape or form, and they want to prevent that no matter what.

So basically, our children and the leaders of tomorrow will suffer a mess created by us because we are too fearful of government/Congressional excess, believe disinformation on global warming like a bunch of blind sheep, and we fear a larger government role in helping fix this mess?

These sound like damn good reasons to just drop the ball and screw future generations! [sarcasm]

I really feel sorry for this generation as they will inherit such a mess created by people's lack of willingness to act and change their ways.

We helped create this monster, and we must now band together as international stewards of the environment to try fixing it and limit future damage.

Our kids' futures depend on it.

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